Floyd Mayweather in South Africa with the crew (Photo: Instagram.com)
By Chris Robinson
At the moment, Floyd Mayweather can be found in South Africa, as he made a trek with some of his close friends and associates into the country for a small tour that will see him hit up various locations while trying to help revive the boxing scene in the area.
On Wednesday afternoon, a video aired showing Mayweather hosting a press conference for the South African media and the initial conversation focused on his May 3 return to the ring.
“Who are you going to make rich next?” a reported jokingly asked Floyd of his next assignment in Las Vegas.
At the moment, British star and former world champion Amir Khan appears to be in the running to land the shot at Mayweather, with WBA welterweight champion Marcos Maidana also in the mix.
“We don’t know,” Mayweather answered. “We’ll know within the next seven days. If it’s Amir Khan, if it’s Marcos Maidana. We don’t know at this particular time.”
Whether he is in the mood to discuss it or not, there is still much curiosity surrounding a potential Mayweather fight with Manny Pacquiao.
Mayweather vs. Pacquiao was once the hottest topic in the sport and with Pacquiao having rebounded from his knockout loss to Juan Manuel Marquez by defeating Brandon Rios in November, some of the buzz has started to resurface.
Addressing the topic yet again, Mayweather pulled no punches.
“As far as the Manny Pacquiao fight, we can get right down to the nitty gritty,” Mayweather explained. “This is what happened. I offered Manny Pacquiao the fight before. We didn’t see eye to eye on terms as far as random blood and urine testing.
“Years later we came back and I tried to make the fight happen again,” Mayweather added. “I offered him $40 million .He said he wanted 50/50, so we didn’t make the fight happen.”
Pacquiao had a rough 2012 campaign that saw him lose a controversial split-decision to Tim Bradley in June before being knocked out by Marquez six months later. Those two defeats, coupled with his recent issues with the IRS, give Mayweather extreme hesitation towards reaching out to Pacquiao for a potential super fight.
“Manny Pacquiao all of a sudden he loses to Timothy Bradley, he loses to Marquez, which is a guy that I beat,” stated Mayweather. “He has tax problems now. Two losses and tax problems later now he all of a sudden he says ‘I’d do anything to make the fight happen’ but what he’s really saying is ‘Floyd, can you help me solve my tax problem?’
“He’s with Bob Arum, which is his promoter, and I’m under my own banner, which is Mayweather Promotions,” Mayweather continued. “If I’m keeping 100% of the revenue there’s no way I can go split 20%, 30%, not even 10%. If I’m keeping 100% of the money, why would I go anywhere and split the money?”
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Chris Robinson can be reached at Trimond@aol.com